Strategy use moderates the relation between working memory capacity and fluid intelligence: A combined approach

Abstract

This study investigated whether the strength of the link between working memory capacity and fluid intelligence differs as people use different strategies to solve fluid intelligence problems. A sample of 214 university students completed three complex span tasks measuring working memory capacity and Raven's Advanced Progressive Matrices (APM) assessing fluid intelligence. Strategic behavior was measured by both the strategy questionnaire and the eye-tracking technique. Latent profile analysis yielded three groups of participants using constructive matching, response elimination, and a third strategy, respectively. Participants adopting constructive matching spent proportionally more time on the matrix area but less time on the response bank, and exhibited longer latency to first toggle and higher rate of toggling than those using response elimination and the other strategy, consistent with the results obtained from the questionnaire data. Furthermore, strategy use moderated the relationship between working memory capacity and APM performance. The link between working memory capacity and APM scores was significantly higher for participants using eliminative strategies including response elimination (r = 0.63) and the other strategy (r = 0.54) than that for those using constructive matching (r = 0.27). Our findings suggest that the extent to which working memory relates to performance on APM varies as a function of strategy use.